HEALTHY HABITS
h t i w TENILLE LAWRENCE Little Birdie Hair Co is a reduced chemical and sustainability focused boutique brand and Winner of Best Eco Salon in the 2020 Australia Hair Industry Awards.
The sustainability focused team are passionate about creating as little waste as possible and recycle everything from product packaging to cut hair! Each week the salon’s hair clippings are collected by a local community garden so that they can be added to a compost, which is then used as fertiliser. For over 15 years, the team have been creating amazing hair without the use of harsh, synthetic ingredients. A proud pioneer of low tox, sustainable hairdressing, LBHC continues to evolve to become the safest and greenest salons possible. Owner Tenille Lawrence is a mum of 3 girls and a little baby boy. Tenille has been in the industry for 23 years with the main portion of her career working as a colourist for some of the world’s leading colour brands, educating all over the globe. During her career Tenille received chemical poisoning from being exposed to a high level of toxicity constantly. It wreaked havoc with her health and affected all her pregnancies in particular with the birth of her first daughter. After deciding this wasn’t right, Tenille made the decision to live her life and that of her family as low tox, sustainable and organic as she possibly good. Tenille saw a clear 26
Hair Biz Year 15 Issue 2
gap in the market for those who also shared her views when it came to hairdressing and thought now’s her chance to make a difference – and Little Birdie was born. Everything in the salon is reduced chemical and low tox, even down to the way they wash the salon towels (in soap berries) they recycle almost everything (even the hair), and the salon is built with everything that is repurposed, reused or recycled, mainly sourced from scrap metal yards, junk yard sales and old demolished buildings. Most of all providing this new way of low tox living, Tenille has been able to not only protect herself and her staff from harsh chemicals but also their customers. With a busy home and work life, and being the winner of Best Eco Salon in the 2020 AHIA, Tenille was perfect for us to approach regarding her work/life approach to health and the environment in our regular series “Healthy Habits” not to mention finding out more about how she keeps the balance between the two.
HAPPINESS What does happiness mean to you and how do you find it in everyday life? Happiness to me, is the feeling of content. To me this means appreciating the things I have in my life and showing gratitude rather than wishing things were any different. My contentment comes in many forms – whether it
